Content Happiness
by Samaran
Summary: Hanabi fills the void left by Neji's passing in the most predictable unpredictable way possible.
1. Prologue: Tenten

It took all of Tenten's willpower to not throw up when Tsunade informed them of her decision.

She knew Neji's vacancy would've been filled eventually. There was a selfish part of her that hoped that she, Gai, and Lee would be left as a 3 man squad, or at the very least that the process would take enough time for her to find her next career choice.

Teaching always appealed to her. Or maybe taking her specialization to the next level and joining a weapons-specific division of ANBU.

She wasn't sure why she was so eager to move on. Maybe there was a part of her that had already done the math and seen what was coming. Maybe identity didn't matter at all, maybe it was just the thought of another human being filling the void that had once been so magnificently held by Neji. It seemed blasphemous. Impossible.

It wasn't a very shinobi-esque belief. She knew her training. She knew the rules. Her foremost concern should be with getting their team back to the necessary 4 members.

But Neji was… Neji. For 7 years she'd watched him grow, watched him change. His transformation from an uptight, anti-social, condescending asshole, to an uptight, anti-social, slightly less condescending asshole, to finally an uptight, anti-social, condescending third of her entire world was everything she'd ever wanted as a child from her first genin squad.

She'd idolized Tsunade as a child. What she appreciated most about Tsunade wasn't her talent, her strength, her healing abilities, but that she came as a package. One of three, unbelievably talented and unique individuals that had found true companionship in one another.

Real, genuine, calloused friendship.

It wasn't something you could ever say out loud. Much too embarrassing. So when asked, she settled for just being Tsunade. But in her heart of hearts, she loved Lee and Neji for being everything she'd ever dreamed of.

Oh, it took some work for her to get there. Her first impression of Lee was no better than her first impression of Neji. Neither were her second, third, fourth, tenth, twentieth, and hundredth impressions him.

But she came to love them both just the same. They were her Sannin.

And Gai was no Hiruzen Sarutobi. Not even close. But sometimes, when he wasn't walking on his hands, or walking on all fours, or walking on his toes, or walking on his fingertips, or doing one of a million things she swore he thought up of every morning to embarrass her, if ever those rare moments were ever to arise, just for that tiniest moment, a whisper of time so quick that she sometimes doubted it even existed, just barely, she saw him as magnificent as any Kage that had ever lived.

Maybe. She still wasn't so sure.

She used to think they'd be a team forever. A child's fantasy, to be sure. But to her, the happiest years of her life.

Gone.

Neji was dead. Years of a world she'd carefully crafted, shattered.

And Uchiha Sasuke was set to replace him.


	2. Prologue: Hanabi

Hyuuga Hanabi was three hundred and sixty four miles away when Hinata was nearly killed during Pain's invasion of Konoha. She hadn't thought much of her sister till then, despite Neji's endless insistence that she think otherwise. Hinata was just another obstacle that she had long since surpassed during her father's arduous plan for her training. It was Neji she admired, Neji who her father insisted she aspire to be. It was Neji who was always a step ahead, Neji who was the prodigy, Neji who was so _strong_.

Neji was the genius. Hinata was just… there.

But coming home to find her sister so weak, so helpless…

Feelings she didn't even know existed bubbled up inside of her.

She swore to Neji then that she would protect their family. Her entire family. Always. He had smiled then, and promised that she'd never be alone in that goal.

* * *

"That's enough, Hanabi."

"No father." Hanabi wiped her forehead with an already damp rag before settling back into a fighting stance. "A little more."

"Enough!" Hiashi's tone had an edge of finality, an edge that came from a man who was used to being obeyed. "There is no purpose to pushing yourself this hard. You will rest."

Hanabi snapped to attention and bowed reflexively. "Yes father." With a satisfied nod, Hiashi turned his back on her and walked out of the room, closing the sliding door behind him. As soon as the sound of his footsteps faded, Hanabi collapsed and allowed her body to fully relax. She started gasping for air she didn't realize she'd so desperately needed not a few moments ago, her limbs splayed about her on the floor.

The nerve. Her whole life he'd pushed her, and now he was telling her to stop?

With a grunt, she jumped to her feet. As she'd done thousands of times before, she focused the chakra behind her eyes, and she could see. She could see her father still maneuvering his way through the halls towards his study. She could see other Hyuuga training in the adjacent rooms. She could see a flock of small birds making small talk on the roof.

And she could see lines of chakra flowing through and around the world around her. Through all of them.

Her classmates at the academy asked her sometimes what it was like when she used her Byakugan. She never had an answer for them. They dismissed it as arrogance, haughtiness, but they just didn't understand.

It was an impossible to describe sensation, like colors to a blind person. What is red without actually seeing it? Red is only red because it isn't blue.

A sharp jolt of pain in her head snapped her out of her reverie. Hanabi grit her teeth: She was at her limit.

Hiashi was right. _Of course he was_.

She was still too… too _weak_.

She didn't know what to do. She never talked to father about things like this. Father was an authority figure, not a friend. And Hinata… Hinata wasn't someone she really talked to. They were sisters by blood only.

Sometimes, in private, she joked to herself that she'd hit her sister more than her than she'd actually talked to her. Not a typical sibling relationship.

Normally… normally she'd talk to…

She bit her lip.

The tears came freely. And with no one around, she did nothing to stop them. For a moment, she wasn't the future of her clan. For a moment, she wasn't Hyuuga Hanabi.

For a moment, she was just an 11-year old girl.

And it was a painful, horrible, lonely feeling.

* * *

Hyuuga Hanabi was five hundred and seventy two miles away when Neji bled to death in the middle of nowhere.


End file.
